Painthing - Where Are You Now...? (CD)

Review
Doom-metal.com
4.5/10
29.04.2019

I had never heard of Poland's Painthing prior to receiving this debut album to review. Honestly, I was not expecting much because the band's name is confusing but seems like it could be derived from our old friend, teen angst. Furthermore, the album title makes it seem like finding some depressive (not in the good sense) lyrics was somewhat inevitable. Those were my initial thoughts, anyway.

Having now listened to the album, I feel like my pre-listening concerns were perfectly justified. Most debuts tend to require a number of improvements to be made and 'Where Are You Now…?' is not an exception. This release comes across musically as if it were supposed to be an aggressive Death/Doom composition with keyboards added for drama. The intensity is quite poor though, which could be because of the below average harsh vocals, the below par production, or what sounds like a borrowed child's keyboard. At no stage during this album did I feel like the band had me captivated, sadly.

I actually thought that Painthing had some good ideas when it comes to song structures though. For example, I liked the riffs on 'Widow And The King' and thought they could have really built on that. Unfortunately, the Poles were lacking that something extra to complete the songs in a proper fashion. This particular track's fire was rather expertly doused by some very painful male clean vocals. I may not be a huge fan of the band's harsh vocals on this album but they're a lot better than their clean vocals. I also enjoyed the piano introduction to 'The Shell I Live In' as it paved the way for a spellbinding track to be unleashed but, as with most (if not all) tracks on this album, it was destroyed by an unnecessary element. In this instance, that was the painfully rushed male clean vocals and child's keyboard interludes.

For me, this is yet another example of a band that should stick to writing songs in its native language. In the English language, their lyrics look awkward and childish whereas the musical elements in the album suggests that raw passion and emotion was the name of the game. I can't help feeling that there'd have been more of a connection with the song if the lyrics had been in Polish. I mean, during the slower sections where the male clean vocals were present, I genuinely cringed at times because it sounded weak and awkward. In no way can I imagine such elements being well-received by the Doom masses because it's poor, to be blunt. The female clean vocals, however, are done well in conjunction with the style of the album, which makes me wonder why they're not more frequently utilised.

Ultimately, my findings on 'Where Are You Now…?' are that the band has some potential but needs to make some serious changes in order to achieve it. The transitions between different speeds were more awkward and jerky than smooth and measured. The vocals were generally either average or poor. The song structures were rather interesting in spells but were generally interrupted by unnecessarily intrusive/destructive elements. The keyboards sounded very poor. The band was too rash in certain moments on the album, particularly on 'Buzz And Madness', which was composed as if nobody in the band had any clue about song structures to begin with. Unfortunately, there are just too many poor elements on this release for my liking even though I think the band has got some good ideas to try to work on in the future.

Author: Ian Morrissey

Отличный дебют получился у польской группы. Но есть одна особенность. Такого особенного звучания ударных я не слышал в стилистике дум - дэт. Фантастика!

Review
The Pit of the Damned
7/10
24.02.2019

Nell'ultimo periodo abbiamo fatto una bella indigestione di uscite discografiche della Solitude Productions. L'ultima band che probabilmente ci mancava a rapporto, è quella dei polacchi Painthing e del loro esordio 'Where Are You Now...?'. Il quintetto di Varsavia è in giro dal 2014, ma solo sul finire del 2018, è riuscito a rilasciare il debut assoluto. Un disco di otto tracce che offre un death doom caratterizzato dall'alternarsi tra partiture tipicamente malinconiche a sfuriate death, con un utilizzo delle tastiere alquanto interessante, decisamente solenne. Lo si capisce dall'opening track, "Between", che mette in scena quello che sembra essere il più classico degli album death doom che richiama i primissimi Anathema, ma che tuttavia ha modo di offrire qualche trovata intelligente e originale. Gli arrangiamenti sono infatti di grande spessore e anche l'utilizzo delle clean vocals che sembrano ricordare Fernando Ribeiro dei Moonspell, alla fine risulteranno vincenti. Probabilmente quello che alla fine stona nel primo pezzo sono proprio le furiose accelerazioni death, che per il sottoscritto, ci stanno qui come i cavoli a merenda. Con "Widow and the King" sprofondiamo nel doom più cupo, con la sovrapposizione tra il cantato in growl e clean accompagnato dalle buone melodie di tastiere, che ad un certo punto trasfigurano in un bell'organone da chiesa. La progressione della song è comunque affidata ad una certa alternanza di cambi di tempo che rendono godibile la proposta della compagine polacca, che cattura enormemente la mia attenzione, quando mette in scena un assolo rock, guidato dal pianoforte. Ecco nuovamente l'originalità di cui andavo in cerca, che compare e scompare a tratti, nel corso dell'ascolto di questo disco, che nel secondo brano palesa anche qualche sentore ritmico alla Morbid Angel. Questo per dire che di carne al fuoco ce n'è parecchia e che forse il focus dei Painthing non è ancora del tutto chiaro. Quel che è certo è che i cinque giovani virgulti siano ottimi musicisti, probabilmente con idee anche particolari (ascoltatevi l'imprevedibile e folle "Buzz and Madness"), ma mi pare che ci sia un po' di indecisione sul cosa esattamente concentrarsi. Qualcuno lo potrà vedere come punto di forza della band, ma se i generi trattati sono un po' troppo distanti tra loro, questo potrà rivelarsi come una grossa debolezza. Mi intriga, sia chiaro, la proposta della band, ci sono ancora però alcune ingenuità da sistemare. Se con "The Shell I Live in" si ritorna alle melodie dei primi Anathema/My Dying Bride, cantati nello stile di 'Wolfheart' dei Moonspell, potete capire lo stupore e l'interesse che potrebbe generare 'Where Are You Now...?'. Poi arriva "Psychosis" e non mi convince granchè, più che altro per la sua eccessiva monoliticità, anche se i nostri provano a risollevarla nel finale con qualche tocco di synth. Con un titolo come "Only Death Will Divide Us" è lecito attendersi un death doom canonico con qualche keys stralunata in sottofondo. Lo stesso dicasi per "To Live is to Fight", una song dai tratti tipici della Mia Sposa Morente, che qui tiene sopita la componente più brutale dell'ensemble polacco, dando maggior spazio alla componente atmosferica. A chiudere il cd ci pensa invece "So Be It", il canto malinconico di una donna su tocchi strazianti di pianoforte ed un chorus etereo che evoca i Decoryah di 'Wisdom Floats', a decretare la fine di un lavoro di sicuro interesse, almeno per quanto concerne le potenzialità di crescita dei Painthing, dal cui futuro sono certo che ne sentiremo delle belle.

Author: Francesco Scarci

Review
Breathing the Core

1. BETWEEN:

Our life, however sometimes difficult, is ours indeed. That’s why it’s us who take whole responsibility for it and it’s us, who pay all the price for wrong decisions.

People around us tend to share their visions of how we ought to live, use to give advice even if we don’t ask for it.

They know better.
Yeah...
Bullshit – isn’t it?

On the other hand, sometimes they may be right, and such thought comes to us especially when we are in doubt or we fucked something up.

The truth is that we never know...

But what we know for sure is that no one will live our lives instead of us. So our decisions are always right, even if we make mistakes, they are our mistakes.

2. THE WIDOW AND THE KING:

I remember the first time I visited a hospice – place that provides end-of-life care for patients who cannot be cared for at home.

Loneliness and sorrow were the first impressions I got.

The conditions there were really good, as the hospice was quite expensive.

Someone who paid for that probably was rich enough to provide the best care for the patients.

Mainly there were children, paying for their parents.

One lady which I spoke with, told me that she was grateful to her son, who placed her in such a good place, after her husband died.

He pays the fee, visits her once per 3-4 weeks and for sure he would like to see her more often, but he’s a very busy man of success.

I believe that the lady was truly proud of her son.

But the sadness in her eyes was much more convincing than everything she had said...

3. BUZZ AND MADNESS:

Kings and queens of life. Almighty gods of pleasure and joy reaching the edge of buzz and madness. How many of them are the ones who try to cure their pain behind the mask of temporary happiness? Cure with drugs, alcohol, instant pleasures and everything what may help them to disconnect from the suffering they feel every day.

Too many...

At the end of the day, they become patients of hospitals, drug treatment clinics or even psychiatric wards. Dependent on medicines and other people. Sick and helpless. They wait for death - abandoned and miserable. But once, they were kings of life...

4. THE SHELL I LIVE IN:

Do you remember the guy from Metallica’s video „One”? Sometimes that picture comes back to me in flashbacks.

Our life is our primal right.

The same is death.

It’s one of my deepest fears, to be in the situation when I suffer constantly, beyond the limit, without any hope to recover and don’t have even the possibility to die.

Denying the right to decide about it’s own death while the person feels constant pain, in the name of humanity, Law, God or whatever it is... is inhuman.

5. PSYCHOSIS 4:48

The last drama of Sarah Kane, before she died committing suicide. The diary of her last days of life, filled with mental illness, suffering and loneliness.

4:48 am, when she used to wake up in the state of deep depression. This song is based on the drama of Sarah Kane and includes the part of her monologue. The lyrics compiles this original monologue with our vision of it, to embrace the short, but holistic form.

The music reflects the psychotic vein and growing madness. One of the most moving drama performances I have ever seen and the real, although poetic footage of the pure tragedy of human being.

6. ONLY DEATH WILL DIVIDE US:

The story of relation so strong that may be ended only by death. The first thought that usually comes to mind is about relation of pure love or friendship able to survive everything what may happen in life.

Nevertheless – life gives much more options. This relation is strong indeed, but in a twisted way.

Humiliation, loneliness, disappointment, hatred...

So frequently people live together only because they are dependent on themselves. Sometimes the dependence lays only on one side and it opens an area for abasement. All positive feelings are dying in a slow agony, day by day, but for some reason there’s no way out from this toxic relation.

It may happen that the last act of dignity or independence is suicidal death.

7. TO LIVE IS TO FIGHT:

Life is a journey.
Each of us experiences this journey differently, in a very personal way.
And this journey is not easy.
Even if you have loving people around, you are always facing your fears, emotions or pain alone.
You need to stand for this struggle solitarily.
It doesn’t matter who you are – if you consider yourself as strong or weak – it’s always you, who wins or
is defeated in those battles.
Constant fight until you die.
The good news is that if you are still alive, it means you are on the winning position...

8. SO BE IT:

This entire album is about fears.
The feelings and emotions we are afraid of.
The tragedies and experiences that we even don’t want to think about.
In music, we can face them. Not literally of course, but can try to imagine the hypothetical situation, sip the taste of tragedy we wouldn’t like to experience to tame the fear that dwells inside.
Obviously it won’t prepare us to anything, but some of us will take advantage of this illusion somehow.
Sometimes we are not able to avoid the misery and the only thing we can do is to accept the burden and move on.
Even if it seems to be impossible...

Author: Screamer

Review
Doomed to Darkness
8/10
24.12.2018

Painthing are a band from Poland that plays a very depressive, atmospheric and depressive form of doom/death metal and this is a review of their 2018 album "Where Are you Know..." which was released by Solitude Productions.

Clean playing starts off the album along with the solos and leads being done in a very melodic style while the slow and heavy riffs are very heavily rooted in doom metal as well the music also adding in a great amount of atmospheric sounding keyboards and the riffs also bring in a lot of melody.

Vocals are mostly death metal growls while the music also has a lot of 90's influences along with some spoken word parts also being used briefly as well as the faster sections of the songs also adding in a decent amount of blast beats and clean vocals are also utilized at times, most of the tracks are very long and epic in length and as the album progresses a brief use of acoustic guitars can also be heard and female vocals are added onto the closing track.

Painthing plays a style of doom/death metal that is very atmospheric, depressive and melodic sounding, the production sounds very professional while the lyrics cover darkness, death and depressive themes.

In my opinion Painthing are a very great sounding depressive, melodic and atmospheric doom/death metal band and if you are a fan of this musical genre, you should check this album. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Widow" "Psychosis" and "To Live Is To Fight".

Author: OccultBlackMetal